Quaternary International xxx (2012) 1e11

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Quaternary International
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The initial human settlement of Northwest South America during the Pleistocene/
Holocene transition: Synthesis and perspectives
Francisco J. Aceituno a, *, Nicolás Loaiza a, b, Miguel Eduardo Delgado-Burbano c, d, Gustavo Barrientos c, d
a
Grupo medioambiente y sociedad, Departamento de Antropología, Universidad de Antioquia, Calle 67 No 53-108, Medellin, AA 1226, Colombia
b
Temple University, Department of Anthropology, Philadelphia, PA 19119, USA
c
División Antropología, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Paseo del Bosque s/n., B1900FWA La Plata, Argentina
d
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentina

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The northwestern corner of South America, represented by the current territory of Colombia, is a key
Available online xxx region to assess some relevant issues linked with the initial human peopling of the area, including
population dispersals, cultural diversity, and early adaptations to the changing environmental conditions
experienced by lowland and highland north-Andean Neotropical ecosystems at the Pleistocene/Holocene
transition. The aim of this paper is to present a synthesis of the archaeological research about early
peopling carried out in Northwest South America during the last four decades. Specifically, it will focus
on the adaptive strategies and the cultural diversity patterns exhibited by the early hunter-gatherer
groups that entered the region since late Pleistocene times. The classic ideas about the time of arrival
of the first settlers, the dispersal routes, the incidence of the climate change in on the rate of dispersal
and colonization of different habitats, and the role of the megafauna in the subsistence will be reviewed,
prior to the formulation of new hypotheses about the meaning of the apparent intraregional diversity of
the archaeological record and the evolution of economic strategies over time.
Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction projects in different regions of the Colombian territory have

Due to its geographical position and its high environmental
diversity, Northwest South America-mostly corresponding to the
current Colombian territory-is a crucial area to address the issue of
the timing, pattern, and process of early human colonization of
South America at the Pleistocene/Holocene transition (ca.
12,000e8000 BP). Much of the current knowledge about the
Pleistocene archaeological record from this area is owed to the
intense archaeological and paleoenvironmental research carried
out by G. Correal and his associates since the late 1960s to the early
1990s, particularly focused on the Sabana de Bogotá (Eastern Andes
Cordillera) (Correal and van der Hammen, 1977; Hurt et al., 1977;
Correal, 1979, 1981, 1986; Ardila, 1991). With few exceptions, after
the latter date the interest in the study of the early peopling of
Northwest South America somewhat waned, notwithstanding the
fact that over the last two decades the execution of several research
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: csfjace@antares.udea.edu.co, aceitunob@hotmail.com
(F.J. Aceituno), nloaiza@temple.edu (N. Loaiza), medelgado@fcnym.unlp.edu.ar
(M.E. Delgado-Burbano), barrient@museo.fcnym.unlp.edu.ar (G. Barrientos).
contributed to substantially increase the number of findings and
data corresponding to Early Holocene times (Salgado, 1988e1990;
Cavelier et al., 1995; Gnecco and Mora, 1997; López, 1999; Gnecco,
2000; Mora, 2003; Mora and Gnecco, 2003; Cano, 2004; Aceituno
and Castillo, 2005; Aceituno and Loaiza, 2007; Santos, 2010). The
particular history of the Paleoindian research in Colombia and the
current lack of a coherent program specifically aimed at obtaining
information about the settlement patterns and adaptive strategies
of early populations, make necessary a thorough and critical review
of the available evidence in order to identify the major empirical
and interpretive problems that any contemporary archaeological
approach to the issue must face. In such a context, the aim of this
paper is to present a general view of the Paleoindian record of
Northwest South America corresponding to the Pleistocene/Holo-
cene transition, particularly focusing on current knowledge about
the different adaptive strategies implemented by early hunter-
gatherer groups, the way in which such differences can be
explained by environmental factors, and the differential pattern of
occupation of highlands and lowlands across the entire region. It is
intended to complement a recent paper (Delgado-Burbano et al., in
press) that addresses the strengths and weaknesses of the regional
radiocarbon database, as part of an effort to lay down the

1040-6182/$ e see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2012.05.017

Please cite this article in press as: Aceituno, F.J., et al., The initial human settlement of Northwest South America during the Pleistocene/
Holocene transition: Synthesis and perspectives, Quaternary International (2012), doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2012.05.017
2 F.J. Aceituno et al. / Quaternary International xxx (2012) 1e11

foundations for future research on the early colonization of the
Colombian territory.
2. Paleoenvironmental reconstructions
The northwest part of South America an environmentally
diverse area roughly corresponding to the current Colombian
territory, has an approximate surface of 2,070,408 km2 (Fig. 1). One
of the main geographic characteristics of the area is the division of
the Andean mountain range into three branches of different
geological origin, namely Western, Central and Eastern Cordilleras.
There are two main inter-Andean valleys between the Cordilleras
irrigated by the two main Colombian Andean rivers: the Magdalena
and the Cauca (Domínguez, 1988).
There are two important sectors in terms of biodiversity: the
narrow Pacific strip extending from Panamá up to northern
Ecuador, and the Orinoco-Amazon basins that are part of the vast
Amazon rainforest (Domínguez, 1988). To the eastern side of the
Andes extends Llanos Orientales (Eastern plains), a large plain
covered with grasses and forested areas along the local rivers
(Fig. 1). The remainder of the area is made up of rolling savannahs
along the Colombian Caribbean, including the northern arid strip.
These physiographic characteristics create dramatic climate varia-
tions along the altitudinal gradient producing in turn highly diverse
landscapes. Differences in solar exposure, rainfall, and soils make
a vertical mosaic of markedly different and narrow tiers, except in
the Amazon and eastern plains where the ecosystems are
substantially wider (Gnecco and Aceituno, 2006).
Northwest South America has been a subject of detailed pale-
oenvironmental studies since the second half of the 20th century
leaded by T. van der Hammen. Today there is a large amount of
paleoclimatic and paleoecological data for almost the entire area
covering approximately the last 280,000 years, although a high
portion of such studies came from the Sabana de Bogotá region, and
surrounding areas (Cundiboyacense High Plateau) in the Eastern
Cordillera. For the practical purposes of this section, the focus is on
the environmental evolution of Northwestern South America
around the first appearance of humans, relying on available paly-
nological, glaciomorphological and diatom evidence (Van der
Hammen and González, 1960; Van der Hammen, 1974, 1992; Van
der Hammen and Hooghiemstra, 1995; Colinvaux, 1997; Marchant
et al., 2001, 2002, 2004; Vélez et al., 2006). The region suffered
repeated environmental changes of variable intensity over time,
inferred from temperature, moisture and rainfall fluctuations as
indicated by different climate proxies. Such fluctuations may have
had the potential to cause significant ecological modifications
resulting from climate-dependent chorological changes affecting
vegetal and animal communities.
In a series of papers, Marchant et al. (2001, 2002, 2004) per-
formed detailed biome reconstructions based on pollen data,
indicating at least four chronological periods of important envi-
ronmental changes in Northwest South America:
1) Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) (ca.18,500e17,500 BP). Grass
savannahs, cool mixed forests, and tropical seasonal forests
dominated the lowlands. In the mid to highland elevations
settings, a shift from tropical seasonal forests to cool evergreen
forests and cool mixed forests has been identified, while at
locations above 2500 m asl there was a marked increase of the
cool grasslandeshrub biome. In general terms, the vegetation
at this period reflects cold and dry conditions.
2) Early Lateglacial (ca. 15,500e14,500 BP). The paleoenvir-
onmental record from mid-lower elevations suggests that
during this time span the cool mixed forest biome became
more widespread. The low altitude localities exhibited at that
time the same biomes than today such as grassland savannah,

Fig. 1. Colombian geography and archaeological areas distribution.

Please cite this article in press as: Aceituno, F.J., et al., The initial human settlement of Northwest South America during the Pleistocene/
Holocene transition: Synthesis and perspectives, Quaternary International (2012), doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2012.05.017
 F.J. Aceituno et al. / Quaternary International xxx (2012) 1e11
cool mixed forest and tropical seasonal forest. Overall, the
conditions above mentioned suggest the existence of a cold and
dry climate. In summary, the LGM and the earliest part of the
Late glacial was a very cold and dry time period, in which some
of the investigated localities had very slow sedimentation rates
(Marchant et al., 2002).
3) Final Lateglacial (ca.12,500e11,500 BP). Biome reconstructions
reveal that the environmental conditions were relatively
similar to those of the previous period, although with an
increased spread of cool evergreen forest biomes at mid alti-
tudes, thus revealing some climatic amelioration. This is related
to the Guantiva Interstadial (12,500e11,000 BP), which is
characterized by the increase of average annual temperature
(2  C lower than today) and effective precipitation, as well as
altitudinal movements of the upper forest line (Van der
Hammen and Hooghiemstra, 1995). In the Sabana de Bogotá
(Cundiboyacense High Plateau) for instance, there was an
expansion of the forest over the paramo, which was repre-
sented by Alnus, as well as vegetation typical of marsh envi-
ronments including low bushes of the genera Myrica and
Symplocos. At Fúquene lake (also in the Cundiboyacense High
Plateau) and surrounding areas, the presence of Dodonaea,
a pioneer of bare soil, is a good indicator of this climatic trend
(Van der Hammen, 1974, 1992, p. 45), which has several
correlates in other areas of Colombia (Marchant et al., 2002).
The end of the Guantiva Interstadial was marked by the return
of colder and drier conditions associated with the onset of the
El Abra Stadial (w11,000e10,000/9500 BP).
Average annual temperatures during the E1 Abra Stadial were
4e6  C lower than today. The upper forest line during this time
was some 400e500 m lower than during the Guantiva Inter-
stadial and some 600e800 m lower than today (Van der
Hammen and Hooghiemstra, 1995). In the Sabana de Bogotá
the forest partially disappeared and was replaced by the low
bushes of the subparamo, with many open paramo grasslands of
the family Compositae (Van der Hammen and González, 1960;
Van Geel and van der Hammen, 1973; Van der Hammen, 1974,
1978). According to Van der Hammen and Hooghiemstra
(1995), the Guantiva-El Abra interval is the regional equivalent
to the European Allerød-Younger Dryas sequence.
4) Early Holocene (ca. 10,000e8000 BP). During this interval the
climate ameliorated again, with a sudden rise in average annual
temperature that increased evaporation and caused lakes and
swampy areas to dry (Van der Hammen, 1992). The biome
reconstructions for the 9500e8500 BP interval reveal that there
was a notable expansion of mesic biomes (Marchant et al.,
2002). At higher elevations, cool mixed forest spread at the
expense of the cool grasslandeshrub biome. Below 2570 m asl,
the cool grasslandeshrub biome formed an association with the
cool evergreen forest. At lower altitudes, tropical seasonal forest
and tropical rain forests biomes were present, although some
increasing in the extent of grass savannah and tropical seasonal
forest was detected. According to Marchant et al. (2002, 2004),
this interval was clearly characterized by warmer and wetter
conditions than those of the last part of the Lateglacial.
Finally, changes in the chorology and composition of animal
communities during the Pleistocene/Holocene transition are diffi-
cult to establish because most of the archaeological and paleonto-
logical records come from undated or non-stratified contexts. This
particularly affects the knowledge of relevant aspects regarding
Pleistocene megafauna, whose interactions with humans appear to
be poorly documented (Correal, 1981, 1993; Van der Hammen,
1986; Piperno and Pearsall, 1998; Van der Hammen and Correal,
2001; Correal et al., 2005). Available evidence shows that extinct
Please cite this article in press as: Aceituno, F.J., et al., The initial human settlement of Northwest South America during the Pleistocene/
Holocene transition: Synthesis and perspectives, Quaternary International (2012), doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2012.05.017
3
mammals like proboscidean gomphotheres (genera Hap-
lomastodon, Stegomastodon, and Cuvieronius), xenarthrans (genera
Gliptodon, Propraopus and Eremotherium), and American horses
(genus Equus) coexisted in certain areas, with still living fauna
including cervids (genera Odocoileus and Mazama), xenarthrans
(genus Dasypus), lagomorphs (genus Sylvilagus), caviomorphs
(genera Cavia and Cuniculus), and cricetids. However, the timing of
megafauna extinction and the role of humans in such a process
have yet to be determined. Recent archaeological and Quaternary
research in other South American areas suggests an extinction
pattern regionally differentiated but in general terms implying
climate more than human influence (Piperno and Pearsall, 1998;
Borrero, 2006, 2008; Barnosky and Lindsey, 2010).
3. The archaeological record at the Pleistocene/Holocene
transition
As it was already mentioned, the information about the Pleis-
tocene human settlement of Colombia is still relatively scarce. In
very general terms, the archaeological record of early occupations is
located in the Sabana de Bogotá the middle Magdalena River Basin
(Middle Magdalena), the Central and Western Cordillera, and the
Popayan Plateau (Fig. 1). To date, there is almost no information
from key regions such as the Caribbean lowlands, a coastal corridor
that had to be used by early colonizer groups, as the Joboid tradition
on the Venezuelan Caribbean coast suggests (Bryan et al., 1978;
Gruhn, 1979; Oliver and Alexander, 2003), the Chocó on the Pacific
coast, and most of the Eastern Plains and the Amazon Basin.
The Sabana de Bogotá is a high Andean plateau located at
2600 m asl within the Cundiboyacense High Plateau, in the Eastern
Cordillera. The oldest dates come from two rockshelters, El Abra II
and Tequendama I, and an open air site named Tibitó (Table 1). At El
Abra II, 37 lithic flakes and expedient unifacial tools, which gave
name to the “Abriense industry” or “edge-trimmed tool tradition”
(Correal et al., 1966e1969; Hurt et al., 1977; Correal, 1986), were
recovered at the lower levels (7 and 8; ca. 12,400 BP) in association
with faunal remains of still living species such as deer and small-
bodied mammals. Several charcoal samples, mostly small flecks
mixed with dark soil particles, were selected for dating, yielding
final Pleistocene and Early Holocene ages (Correal et al., 1966e1969;
Hurt et al., 1977; Correal, 1986). At Tequendama, Correal and van der
Hammen (1977) excavated a group of rockshelters. The lower levels
of Tequendama I, dated between ca.12,500 and 10,900 BP, contained
faunal remains similar to those found at El Abra II and simple flakes.
Between ca.11,000 and ca.10,000 BP appears a different kind of
technology, called Tequendamiense, whose main differences with
the Abriense artifacts are the use of exogenous materials and the
presence of scrapers, thinned flakes and a projectile point fragment
(Correal and van der Hammen, 1977, p. 34).
In 1979 Correal excavated Tibitó, an open air butchering site
dated 11,740  110 BP, where a number of Abriense stone tools were
recovered associated with bone remains of mastodon (Hap-
lomastodon sp. and Cuvieroniu shyodon), american horse (Equus sp.)
and deer (Odocoileus virginianus) (Correal, 1981). At the Sabana de
Bogotá, further investigations in sheltered and open air sites
including Sueva I, Gachalá, Galindo I, Neusa, and Checua led to the
recovery of contexts characterized by the presence of Abriense
artifacts and faunal remains of still living species, with chronologies
ranging from 12,000 to 8000 BP, suggesting a continuity of this
cultural tradition from the late Pleistocene to Early Holocene times
(Table 1).
In the lowlands rainforest of the Middle Magdalena, some
important early sites including Nare, La Palestina 1 and 2, San Juan
de Bedout, and Peñones de Bogotá were explored and subsequently
excavated during the last decade (for a synthesis, see López, 2008).
4 F.J. Aceituno et al. / Quaternary International xxx (2012) 1e11

Table 1
14
C dates from northwest South America at the Pleistocene/Holocene transition.
14
Site Region C date Sigma Calib BC/ AD (OxCal 4.1 95.4%) References
Pubenza Cundinamarca 16,400 420 18,576 16,731 Van der Hammen and Correal (2001)
El Jordán Central Cordillera 12,910 60 14,137 13,087 Salgado (1998)
El Abra II Sabana de Bogota 12,400 160 13,152 12,021 Hurt et al. (1977)
Tibitó Sabana de Bogota 11,740 110 11,872 11,408 Correal (1981)
Tequendama I Sabana de Bogota 10,920 250 11,369 10,424 Correal and van der Hammen (1977)
El Abra II Sabana de Bogota 11,210 90 11,356 10,891 Hurt et al. (1977)
Tequendama I Sabana de Bogota 10,730 105 10,945 10,476 Correal and van der Hammen (1977)
El Abra II Sabana de Bogota 10,720 400 11,438 9407 Correal et al. (1977)
Tequendama I Sabana de Bogota 10,590 90 10,743 10,202 Correal and van der Hammen (1977)
Tequendama I Sabana de Bogota 10,460 130 10,688 9893 Correal and van der Hammen (1977)
Nare Middle Magdalena 10,400 40 10,564 10,140 López (2008)
Nare Middle Magdalena 10,400 60 10,579 10,111 López (2008)
La Palestina 2 Middle Magdalena 10,400 90 10,612 10,048 López (2008)
Nare Middle Magdalena 10,350 60 10,471 10,034 López (2008)
San Juan de Bedout Middle Magdalena 10,350 90 10,593 9878 López (1989)
La Palestina 2 Middle Magdalena 10,300 70 10,451 9874 López (2008)
La Palestina 2 Middle Magdalena 10,260 70 10,436 9806 López (2008)
PIII0I-52 Middle Porce 10,260 50 10,424 9819 Otero and Santos, (2006)
La Palestina 2 Middle Magdalena 10,230 80 10,432 9671 López (2008)
Tequendama I Sabana de Bogota 10,150 150 10,432 9317 Correal and van der Hammen (1977)
Tequendama I Sabana de Bogota 10,140 100 10,170 9371 Correal and van der Hammen (1977)
Tequendama I Sabana de Bogota 10,130 150 10,429 9300 Correal and van der Hammen (1977)
El Jazmin Middle Cauca 10,120 70 10,075 9449 Aceituno and Loaiza (2007)
Sueva I Sabana de Bogota 10,060 90 10,009 9374 Correal (1979)
La Morena Medellín River 10,090 60 10,074 9364 Santos (2010)
San Isidro Popayan Plateau 10,050 100 10,027 9312 Gnecco (2000)
San Isidro Popayan Plateau 10,030 60 9861 9322 Gnecco (2000)
Tequendama I Sabana de Bogota 10,025 95 10,015 9299 Correal and van der Hammen (1977)
Tequendama I Sabana de Bogota 9990 100 10,007 9279 Correal and van der Hammen (1977)
La Palestina 1 Middle Magdalena 9820 115 9760 8839 CAIN-OCENSA, 1997 in López (2008)
El Jordán Central Cordillera 9760 160 9803 8727 Salgado (1998)
Tequendama I Sabana de Bogota 9740 135 9657 8750 Correal and van der Hammen (1977)
66PER001 Middle Cauca 9730 100 9377 8795 Cano (2004)
La Morena Medellín River 9680 60 9276 8837 Santos (2010)
Salento 24 Middle Cauca 9680 100 9298 8784 Tabares and Rojas (2000)
Sauzalito Calima River 9670 100 9292 8782 Bray et al. (1988)
Sauzalito Calima River 9600 100 9260 8722 Bray et al. (1988)
San Isidro Popayan Plateau 9530 100 9221 8634 Gnecco (2000)
La Selva Middle Cauca 9490 110 9221 8560 Rodríguez (2002)
Gachalá Sabana de Bogota 9360 45 8756 8485 Correal (1979)
El Abra II Sabana de Bogota 9340 40 8731 8477 Hurt et al. (1977)
El Abra II Sabana de Bogota 9325 100 9105 8294 Hurt et al. (1977)
La Pochola Middle Cauca 9312 55 8724 8348 Aceituno ms.
Sauzalito Calima River 9300 100 8786 8294 Bray et al. (1988)
Peña Roja Amazon Basin 9250 140 9119 8221 Cavelier et al. (1995), Gnecco (2000)
Peña Roja Amazon Basin 9160 90 8614 8244 Cavelier et al. (1995), Gnecco (2000)
Peña Roja Amazon Basin 9125 250 9127 7611 Mora (2003)
Sitio 045 Middle Porce 9120 90 8619 8015 Castillo and Aceituno (2006)
El Abra II Sabana de Bogota 9050 470 9751 7080 Hurt et al. (1977)
El Abra II Sabana de Bogota 9025 90 8534 7886 Hurt et al. (1977)
El Jazmín Middle Cauca 9020 60 8325 7968 INTEGRAL (1997)
Sitio 021 Middle Porce 8990 80 8338 7836 Castillo and Aceituno (2006)
El Abra II Sabana de Bogota 8810 430 9248 6840 Hurt et al. (1977)
El Abra II Sabana de Bogota 8760 350 9114 7047 Hurt et al. (1977)
El Recreo Calima River 8750 160 8256 7549 Herrera et al. (1992)
Galindo I Sabana de Bogota 8740 60 8166 7597 Pinto (2003)
La Pochola Middle Cauca 8680 55 7937 7587 Aceituno and Loaiza (2007)
La Selva Middle Cauca 8680 60 7939 7586 Aceituno and Loaiza (2007)
39 El RecreoCancha Middle Cauca 8550 60 7711 7498 Herrera et al. (2011)
Peña Roja Amazon Basin 8510 110 7935 7197 Llanos (1997)
39 El Recreo Cancha Middle Cauca 8480 40 7587 7498 Herrera et al. (2011)
Peñones de Bogotá Middle Magdalena 8480 40 7587 7498 López (2008)
Salento 21 Middle Cauca 8430 100 7606 7184 Tabares and Rojas (2000)
El Antojo Middle Cauca 8380 90 7584 7187 INTEGRAL (1997)
Neusa Sabana de Bogota 8370 90 7581 7185 Rivera (1991)
PIIIOP-59 Middle Porce 8340 40 7521 7311 Cardona et al. (2007)
Checua Sabana de Bogota 8200 110 7524 6834 Groot (1992)
San Germán II Middle Cauca 8136 65 7351 6840 Aceituno and Loaiza (2007)
Peña Roja Amazon Basin 8090 60 7303 6824 Mora (2003)
39 El Recreo Cancha Middle Cauca 8030 80 7303 6824 Herrera et al. (2011)

Please cite this article in press as: Aceituno, F.J., et al., The initial human settlement of Northwest South America during the Pleistocene/
Holocene transition: Synthesis and perspectives, Quaternary International (2012), doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2012.05.017
 F.J. Aceituno et al. / Quaternary International xxx (2012) 1e11 5

These stratified open air sites, were dated between 10,400 and spatio-temporal distribution of the late Pleistocene/early Holocene
8500 BP (Table 1). Simple flakes, plane-convex scrapers and trian- archaeological record across northwestern South America. This
gular fishtail projectile points with straight, oblique or rounded distribution is fundamental to understand the timing, pattern,
wings, and long thin tails, made either on chert or quartz were process and tempo of early exploration and colonization of the area,
found without association with faunal or vegetal remains. and the way in which different adaptive strategies allowed pop-
During the 1980s and the early 1990s, several sites were excavated ulation expansion and dispersal during the early Holocene.
in the Colombian southwest and integrated into the discussion The available data suggest that the interregional diversity in
regarding the early human settlement in South America. At the Calima lithic assemblages, often used to define “traditions”, can be
(Western Cordillera), a sub-Andean valley about 1600 m asl, two open explained by geographical and chronological variables, meaning
air sites of early Holocene age, El Sauzalito and El Recreo, were that the nature of the interactions between different regions during
discovered. The sites contained artifact assemblages composed of the phases of early exploration and colonization of the Colombian
simple unifacial flakes, hoes, hand stones, hammers, and anvils dated territory are still unclear.
between ca. 9700 and 8800 BP (Salgado, 1988e1990) (Table 1). At the Regarding the time of arrival of the first human groups to the
Popayan Plateau (Central Cordillera), about 1600 m asl, lies the site of area, there is some uncertainty derived from the interpretation of
San Isidro, dated at around 10,000 BP (Gnecco, 1994, 2000, 2003) both technological and radiocarbon evidence. On the basis of the
(Table 1). The lithic material recovered at San Isidro consists of thou- Sabana de Bogotá data and the dates associated with the Jobo
sands of chert artifacts, among which unretouched and retouched tradition, a pre-Clovis age of the earliest occupations of northwest
flakes, lanceolate bifaces and handstone tools are included, with no South America is suggested, although it is yet largely undemons-
association with faunal remains (Gnecco, 1994, 2000, 2003; Gnecco trated with high quality, undisputable data (Dillehay, 2000;
and Mora, 1997), Mora and Gnecco, 2003. In addition to the artifacts, Delgado-Burbano et al., in press). Chronological differences
charred seeds of Persea spp. and Erythrina and starch grains from between the Abriense and Joboid traditions do not indicate
Xanthosoma, Ipomea, Manihot and Maranta cf arundinacea were also whether the two “cultures” belong to some pre-Clovis migration
identified, as well as other grasses and legumes (Piperno and Pearsall, wave that reached South America following the Caribbean coast
1998, p. 200). line, entering the mainland through the large river basins (i.e.
Contemporary with the investigations in the Colombian southwest, Magdalena and Cauca), to go along and cross the northern Andes
archaeological research in the Amazon basin led to the discovery of (Fig. 2). These routes are supported by Dahl et al. (2011: 221) who
Peña Roja, an open air site located on the middle Caquetá River Basin, argue that the geographical location and separation of language
dated between 9250 and 8100 BP (Cavelier et al., 1995; Gnecco and families may suggest entry routes and possible migration path-
Mora, 1997; Mora, 2003, Mora and Gnecco, 2003) (Table 1). At this ways. In this particular case, the Chibcha family language is related
site, unifacial flakes, choppers, drills, handstones, milling stones, to the Magdalena River Route (Ch in Dahl et al., 2011,p. 218) and the
hammers and anvils compose the lithic assemblage (Cavelier et al., Páez language (pbb in Dahl et al., 2011,p. 218) may explain the
1995). Thousands of charred seeds and macrobotanical remains separate Cauca River Route (Fig. 2).
belonging to different genera of palm trees were also recovered at this
site (Morcote et al., 1998), along with phytoliths of Lagenaria spp.,
Calathea allouia and Cucurbita spp. (Gnecco and Mora, 1997; Piperno
and Pearsall, 1998), indicatcing the importance of the vegetal
resources among early tropical rainforest hunter-gatherers.
More recently, at the Middle Cauca River Basin (Middle Cauca)
and the Middle Porce River Basin (Middle Porce) (Central Cordillera,
ca. 1650e2100 m asl), a number of stratified open air sites that date
back, in some cases, to the Late Pleistocene were recovered (Tabares
and Rojas, 2000; Rodríguez, 2002; Cano, 2004; Castillo and
Aceituno, 2006; Aceituno and Loaiza, 2007; Santos, 2010). At El
Jazmín (Middle Cauca) (Aceituno and Loaiza, 2007, 2010) and La
Morena (Medellin River Valley) (Santos, 2010), both dated at
around 10,100 BP, the lithic technology, basically consisting of
simple flakes, axes, hoes, hand stones and milling bases, is clearly
focused on plant resource exploitation, a clear difference from
other early archaeological cultures (Table 1).
There are two other putative Pleistocene sites reported in the
archaeological literature. The first is Pubenza, an open air site
located in the lowlands of the Middle Magdalena (Cundinamarca)
where mastodon bones were found associated with eight stone
flakes in a layer dated at 16,460  420 BP (Van der Hammen and
Correal, 2001). The second is El Jordan (Central Cordillera) whose
lowest layer containing a few stone flakes was dated at
12,910  60 BP (Salgado, 1998, p. 78). In both cases, more detailed
stratigraphic and archaeological information is required in order to
include these sites in the discussion about the early peopling of
Northwest South America.

4. Interregional relationships

The geographical location of sites, radiocarbon dates, and lithic

assemblages constitute the most important evidence to assess the Fig. 2. Suggested entry routes to Northwest South America.

Please cite this article in press as: Aceituno, F.J., et al., The initial human settlement of Northwest South America during the Pleistocene/
Holocene transition: Synthesis and perspectives, Quaternary International (2012), doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2012.05.017
6 F.J. Aceituno et al. / Quaternary International xxx (2012) 1e11

In terms of spatial relationships, the links between the Sabana

de Bogotá and other Colombian regions during the Late Pleistocene
are not yet clearly understood. A certain flow of raw materials from
the Magdalena River Basin to the Cundiboyacense High Plateau can
be demonstrated, as they are present in artifacts from the
Tequendamiense assemblages (around 10,000 BP). However, very
little is known about the technological relationships between the
Abriense and the Magdalena River traditions, given the absence of
data from the latter region prior to 10,400 BP. Regarding the rela-
tionships between the central area represented by the Cundi-
boyacense High Plateau and the Middle Magdalena with southern
areas, the paucity of data from the latter precludes meaningful
comparison. Notwithstanding the fact that two sites from the
Middle Magdalena (Cundinamarca) and the Central Cordillera,
Pubenza and El Jordan respectively, have dates well in excess of
11,500 BP, only the sites from the Cundiboyacense High Plateau
with comparable dates are reliable (Figs. 3 and 4; Table 1) (see
discussion in Delgado-Burbano et al., in press).
In general terms, the amount of dates, as well as sites, increases
from 11,000 to 10,000 BP (Fig. 4). In this time frame, the corridors
marked by the two major river basins, namely Magdalena and
Cauca, are highlighted, given the dates and sites located along
them. During this period, the Tequendamiense (Sabana de Bogotá)
and the Middle Magdalena lithic traditions appear in the archae-
ological record, bearing some technological similarities, such as the
bifacial reduction, pressure flaking, as well as the use of the Mag-
dalena River Basin raw materials (Correal, 1986; López, 1999). As an

Fig. 4. Amount of dates between 12,000 and 10,000 BP by geographical location.

important technological feature that may be related to this time

Fig. 3. Amount of dates over 12,000 BP by geographical location.
period is the surface recovery of several stemmed projectile points
at the Middle Magdalena (Fig. 5AeG). In the Middle Porce, a fluted
stemmed point was recovered associated with a 10,260 BP date
(Fig. 5H). Within the Central Cordillera in the Middle Cauca and
Medellin River, a lithic tradition began, characterized by the pres-
ence of waisted hoes and other plant processing tools. To these
findings can be added the surface recovery of two projectile points,
with striking similarities to those found in the Middle Magdalena
lithic tradition but recovered within in the Medellin River
(Fig. 5IeJ) (Ardila and Politis, 1989; Ardila, 1991). At San Isidro in the
Colombian southwest on the Popayan Plateau, Gnecco (2000)
recovered (Fig. 5) flaked bifacial stone tools including several
projectile points (e.g. Fig. 5MeO), manufactured on chert and
obsidian.
These lithic traditions account for a considerable human
expansion in this time period, 11,000 to 10,000 BP (Fig. 4) that
increased even further during the early Holocene, coinciding with
the cooling of the El Abra Stadial and the extinction of the mega-
fauna. The Magdalena Valley is the key region to establish the
space-time relationships between regions, in this case with
Cordillera Central. The projectile points found at the Medellin River
Valley and Middle Porce (Fig. 5HeJ) allow a hypothesis that such
remains were discarded by hunter-gatherers from the Magdalena
River during the exploratory incursion in search of new territories
and resources during the Pleistocene/Holocene transition, an
unstable climate time period that strongly affected the natural

Please cite this article in press as: Aceituno, F.J., et al., The initial human settlement of Northwest South America during the Pleistocene/
Holocene transition: Synthesis and perspectives, Quaternary International (2012), doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2012.05.017
 F.J. Aceituno et al. / Quaternary International xxx (2012) 1e11 7

the Andes, except for Peña Roja in the Amazon Basin (Cavelier et al.,
1995; Mora, 2003) (Fig. 6). In general terms, the sites are located on
five major areas: middle Cauca River Basin (Cano, 2004; Aceituno
and Loaiza, 2007, 2008, 2010), Magdalena River Basin (López,
1999; Ranere and López, 2007), Middle Porce (Aceituno and
Castillo, 2005; Castillo and Aceituno, 2006; Otero and Santos,
2006), Calima River Basin (Salgado, 1988e1990, 1995; Gnecco and
Salgado, 1989) and the Sabana de Bogotá (Correal and van der
Hammen, 1977; Correal, 1979; Groot, 1992) (Table 1) (Fig. 6).
Lithic industries at the Sabana de Bogotá and Magdalena remain
the same with their formalized debitage structure, and apparently
were oriented to procure faunal resources. Nonetheless, this
traditional assumption is being revised for the Sabana de Bogotá
and it is now suggested that the technology was oriented towards
a broad spectrum adaptive strategy, and even with an emphasis on
plant exploitation (Nieuwenhuis, 1998, 2002; Cárdenas, 2002;
Delgado-Burbano, 2012). In the other regions, lithic technology
seems to be mainly oriented to procure plant resources with a high
frequency of grinding stones axes and adzes, with several unfor-
matted flakes that could be used for various purposes (Salgado,
1995; Vergara and Tabares, 1995; INTEGRAL, 1997; Aceituno,
2001; Cano, 2004; Castillo and Aceituno, 2006; Aceituno and
Loaiza, 2007; Santos, 2010). The recent findings in the Middle
Cauca include two stemmed projectile points (Fig. 5KeL), both
recovered in excavations. One has been dated between ca. 8000 BP
and 8500 BP (Herrera et al., 2011), while the other one still remains
undated. This suggests that even though activities were mainly

Fig. 5. Projectile Points. AeG Middle Magdalena (surface collection), H Middle Porce
(10,260 BP), IeJ Medellin River (Surface Collection), K Middle Cauca (Excavated, no
date), L Middle Cauca (ca. 8000e8500 BP), MeO Popayan Plateau (ca. 10,000 BP).

resources distribution of the entire North-Andean region (Van der

Hammen, 1974, 1978; Piperno and Pearsall, 1998, p. 91; Aceituno
and Loaiza, 2007). In the case of the tradition of the Popayan
Plateau (Fig. 5MeO), there is not a clear relationship with the
debitage technology from the other contemporary occupations in
Colombia. However, the identification of macro and microbotanical
plant remains connects this tradition with the contemporary
occupations at Middle Cauca and the Medellin River.
Because it is hard to identify which region held the source
population(s) during the late Pleistocene, the establishing of the
possible early interregional relationships can be useful. Accord-
ingly, the archaeological record suggest a connection between
Central and Eastern Cordilleras, articulated mainly through the
Magdalena River Valley (Fig. 4), but using the entire basin and the
small inter-Andean valleys as connections between regions along
the altitudinal gradient in both Cordilleras.
Colombian early Holocene sites (10,000 to 8000 BP) increase in
number compared to Pleistocene sites and are located mainly on Fig. 6. Amount of dates between 10,000 and 8000 BP by geographical location.

Please cite this article in press as: Aceituno, F.J., et al., The initial human settlement of Northwest South America during the Pleistocene/
Holocene transition: Synthesis and perspectives, Quaternary International (2012), doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2012.05.017
8 F.J. Aceituno et al. / Quaternary International xxx (2012) 1e11
focused on plant resources, hunting may still have played some role
on the adaptive strategies.
The increasing archaeological visibility between 10,000 and
8000 BP likely suggests demographic shifts (i.e. population
increase) and dispersals, especially in the Andean region where the
bulk of the early Holocene record is located (Fig. 6). Based on the
economical orientation suggested by the technology, a dispersal
model is proposed which entails multidirectional displacements of
groups with broad spectrum economies that moved and settled,
initially, the low and highland Andean forests through the inter-
Andean river valleys and subsequently reached rich ecosystems
located along the two greatest river basins in Colombia: Magdalena
and Cauca (Anderson and Gillam, 2000; Dillehay, 2000; Aceituno,
2007; Aceituno and Loaiza, 2007). The early Holocene findings of
several projectile points in Middle Porce (Fig. 5), one of which was
manufactured on what is likely Magdalenian yellow chert, as well
as hundreds of quartz tools similar to the ones in the Magdalena
River (Otero and Santos, 2002), reinforces the hypothesis of the
arrival of the of lowland groups from the Magdalena region using
secondary river valleys as expansion routes through the Andes.
The increase of archaeological sites (Fig. 6) indicates that this
was a period of expansion and population growth along the
Cordilleras (Aceituno, 2007; Aceituno and Loaiza, 2007). The
archaeological record shows a high heterogeneity in terms of lithic
technology between regions, highlighting the emergence in some
cases and the increased use in others, of the plant processing stone
tools. The new environmental conditions imposed by an increase in
temperature and rainfall, and the subsequent expansion of the
rainforests (Van der Hammen, 1992) led the human groups to make
adaptive adjustments depending on the characteristics of the new
ecosystems, including: a) plant resource management in tropical
and premontane forests (Cavelier et al., 1995; Gnecco, 2003; Mora,
2003; Castillo and Aceituno, 2006; Aceituno and Loaiza, 2007,
2008; Santos, 2008), b) the increased hunting of minor species
and the gathering of gastropods in the Sabana de Bogotá (Correal
and van der Hammen, 1977; Correal, 1986, 1990) and c) the
riverine adaptations of the human groups in the Middle Magdalena
River Basin (López, 1999; Otero and Santos, 2002).
In summary, the early archaeological record of Colombia spread
throughout the Andean region of northwestern South America
indicates that there were interregional relationships since the
Pleistocene/Holocene transition. Those relationships were intensi-
fied during the early Holocene, coinciding with an increase in
temperature and rainfall, and the expansion of tropical forests,
bringing significant ecological adjustments to the tropical ecosys-
tems of Northwestern South America.
5. Discussion
The initial human peopling of Northwest South America is
still not well known. Because several questions about the arrival
of the first human groups and the penetration routes into
mainland South America remain unanswered, it is clear that
more evidence is necessary. Some additional questions such as:
can the cultural diversity shown by the archaeological record be
explained by a single migration? If not, how many were there?
Where did the source populations come from? How did the first
settlers expanded? How did the adaptive strategies between late
Pleistocene and early Holocene evolved?, also require further
investigation.
Nonetheless, some advances in certain topics, such as the
adaptive strategies of early hunter-gatherers in the tropical forests,
have increased knowledge. This topic is extremely important
because adaptive strategies are indicators of ecological relation-
ships and adjustments associated with the territorial expansion of
Please cite this article in press as: Aceituno, F.J., et al., The initial human settlement of Northwest South America during the Pleistocene/
Holocene transition: Synthesis and perspectives, Quaternary International (2012), doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2012.05.017
the early groups and can provide information on idiosyncratic
traditions.
On the arrival of the first human groups, not much more can be
added given the absence of new discoveries during the past 15
years. On the one hand, the few dates over 12,000 BP have little
impact in the big picture because they require both comprehensive
and detailed reports and controlled contexts. On the other hand,
the earliest dates from the Sabana de Bogotá still are the reference
point, as they mark the first human arrival to Northwest South
America. In addition, redating programs and modeling the probable
routes of entry are the next steps in order to change the current
scenario (e.g. Politis, 1999; Aceituno, 2001, 2007; Ranere and López,
2007).
A decade ago, some authors presented interesting hypotheses
on the time of entry and the possible routes taken by the first
settlers. For instance, Anderson and Gillam (2000) presented a GIS
based least-cost path analysis highlighting coastal routes (the
Caribbean coast line, which explains the Joboid tradition and along
the Pacific coastline, that has not yielded any evidence so far) and
inter-andean corridors (following the Magdalena River Basin) as
well. On the other hand, Steele et al. (2000) and Surovell (2003)
through modeling analyses indicated dispersing people at about
the time of first appearance of Clovis sites in the north and
dispersals from Central America following a coastal route. These
authors also stressed a scenario of Paleoindian range expansions
characterized by high mobility, low population densities, and low
to moderate population growth rates. However, even today the
available data are too scarce to test such hypotheses.
Adaptive strategies in the time period between 12,000 and
8000 BP seem to be complex due to the abrupt climate changes and
strong environmental adjustments occurred during the Pleisto-
cene/Holocene transition. Human groups suffered the late Pleisto-
cene climatic changes associated with the Guantiva interstadial and
Abra stadial, whose uneven incidence affected mainly the high-
lands above 2000 m asl. However, the real impact that these
changes produced on natural resources within Northern Andes is
not well known.
As in other regions of the continent, the presence of megafauna
in archaeological contexts has been the basis for raising the tradi-
tional Paleoindian hypothesis suggesting that the early inhabitants
of South America were big-mammal hunters (Borrero, 2006, p. 9).
In Colombian archaeology, this hypothesis has been supported
mainly by López (1998, 1999), despite the fact that only at Tibito is
there an undisputable association with megafauna remains with
anthropogenic evidence. For the Middle Magdalena, it has been
suggested that the natural conditions of the basin were suited for
big-mammals, but there is no palynological evidence that recon-
structs the natural environment, and the geomorphological
reconstructions are not clear (López and Realpe, 2006), besides the
fact that no hunting or butchery site has been reported. All these
data support Borrero (2006, p. 9) when he states that the paleo-
indian hypothesis in Colombia is, at the most, inconclusive.
However, regardless of the debate on the importance of mega-
fauna in the survival strategies of the Pleistocene human groups,
the abundant remains of fauna found in the archaeological record
of the Sabana de Bogotá (Correal, 1986), suggest that these high-
lands were well suited for reliance on hunting resources, which
could be a factor to explain the arrival of the first human groups to
this high Andean plateau during the Guantiva interstadial. During
the early Holocene, on the one hand the zooarchaeological record
shows continuity in the use of animals, but on the other hand,
contrary to what was thought until recently, traceological analysis
recently conducted suggest that plant resources were also an
important weight in the diet of the early groups of the Sabana de
Bogotá (Nieuwenhuis, 1998, 2002).
 F.J. Aceituno et al. / Quaternary International xxx (2012) 1e11
The increase in the archaeological record starting at the Pleisto-
cene/Holocene transition is associated with an expansion of human
groups along the river valleys that cross the Cordilleras of the
Northern Andes. In terms of adaptive strategies, lithic technology,
and archaeobotanical data recovered in several regions (i.e. Middle
Cauca, Middle Porce, Medellin River, Popayan Plateau, Amazon Basin
and Calima River) indicate a strong focus on plant resources in a time
of climate change in the neotropics marked by the expansion of
tropical forests (Piperno and Pearsall, 1998, p. 106). The palynolog-
ical record from the Middle Cauca, Calima River and Popayan Plateau
seems to be in agreement to this hypothesis. Some evidence show
forest alteration, such as forest clearing, burning and cultural
selection of key resources increasing the forest’s carrying capacity,
which has served to raise the hypothesis that hunter-gatherers
altered the local ecosystem as part of their strategies for expansion
and adaptation (see Dillehay, 2000; Gnecco, 2000, 2003). These data
suggest the importance of plants and the alteration of tropical
forests as an adaptive strategy, questioning the stereotype of highly
mobile hunter-gatherers with a strong orientation towards hunting
of animals, which has dominated most studies of the early coloni-
zation of America (Gnecco and Aceituno, 2004).
In this regional context, the Magdalena Valley record does not
show any significant change in lithic technology or even in the
number of recorded sites. The continuity in lithic technology and the
absence of Pleistocene megafauna in the archaeological record has
been used as an argument to doubt the existence of specialized
hunters in this region of Colombia (Otero and Santos, 2002).
According to this, evidence indicates that the Holocene occupation
of the Magdalena Valley was focused on the use of aquatic resources
such as fishing, hunting and gathering (Otero and Santos, 2002).
The similarities in material culture and chronologies allow
establishment of relationships between sites and regions, but as
discussed before, the fragmentation of the available data does not
permit the establishment of clear routes of entry and dispersals, or
even the possible origins of the Andean human groups who settled
in Northwest South America. The adaptive strategies inferred from
the archaeological record are associated with different types of
environments, such as the highlands of the Sabana de Bogotá, the
lowlands of the Middle Magdalena and Amazon Basin, and sub-
Andean valleys of Central and Western Cordilleras.
Recent studies on the morphological patterns of the early and
middle Holocene populations from the Northwest region support
high biological diversity consistent with more than one source
population (Delgado-Burbano, 2012, in press). These samples show
important spatial and temporal differences in their dental and
craniofacial morphology, suggesting on the one hand, different
morphologies (ancestors?) entering to the region at the Pleisto-
cene/Holocene transition and on the other hand, the key role of
non-random factors (i.e. selection and plasticity) in the population
differentiation. Specifically, the remarkable morphological differ-
ences detected during the early Holocene also were noted, subse-
quently suggesting, in agreement with the archaeological record,
that the processes of population diversification continued
throughout the Holocene (Delgado-Burbano, 2012) In addition,
several genetic studies are in agreement to the morphological
evidence and suggest both a final Pleistocene age for the source
population(s) and significant within region population differences
(Ruiz-Linares et al., 1999; Mesa et al., 2000; Keyeux et al., 2002;
Torres et al., 2006; Barreto et al., 2007). This view highly contrasts
with other studies that suggest an in situ microevolution and the
negligible role of microevolutionary forces in the population
differentiation (Neves et al., 2007; Rodríguez, 2007).
In ecological terms, the human groups of the early Holocene, on the
one hand, show continuity with Pleistocene occupations, such as the
cases of the Sabana de Bogotá and Middle Magdalena. On the other
Please cite this article in press as: Aceituno, F.J., et al., The initial human settlement of Northwest South America during the Pleistocene/
Holocene transition: Synthesis and perspectives, Quaternary International (2012), doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2012.05.017
9
hand, they exhibit novel strategies that alter forest ecosystems, such as
in the Middle Cauca, the Middle Porce and the Calima River, associated
with territorial expansion with similar occupation strategies coincident
with the increase in temperature, rainfall and the expansion of tropical
rainforests. In summary, the increase of human groups as inferred from
the archaeological record, the continuity of lithic technology (i.e.
Sabana de Bogotá Middle Magdalena), and the survival strategies in
tropical ecosystems, the Pleistocene/Holocene transition was not
a dramatic period that required costly adaptive adjustments.
6. Conclusions
Currently, the early peopling of Northwest South America is
secondary in the study of pre-Columbian societies in Colombia. As
shown throughout this paper, both the discussion and the debate
about the arrival of the first human groups have had little progress
in recent years due to the small amount of data produced in recent
decades. However, the increase in archaeological sites in the time
frame between ca.11,000 and ca. 8000 BP shows also an increase on
the diversity of lithic traditions that reflect the dynamism and
complexity of the human populations of Northwest South America.
Based on the characteristics of the archaeological record, some
interregional relationships associated to the population expansion
of the early Holocene have been suggested. However, there are
issues that are still not well known, such as the origin of these
populations and the relationships to Pleistocene populations.
To explain the variability in cultural traditions, two alternatives
have been suggested that are in no way mutually exclusive and that
cannot be confirmed or denied with the available data. The first one
suggests that the variability is the result of alternate adaptive
strategies to cope with the changing conditions of the Pleistocene/
Holocene transition. The second one suggests that variability is the
result of the encounter in a short period of time of several different
populations entering South America with unknown origin.
At the beginning of the Holocene, the archaeological record
shows a territorial expansion into sub-Andean valleys of the
Northern Andes and innovative adaptation strategies that match
the increase in tropical forests. The most remarkable facts are the
alteration of local ecosystems and the weight of the plants in the
surviving strategies of the early human groups that serve as the
prelude to the origin of plant cultivation. These new insights are
enabling a review of the traditional conception of hunter-gatherers
in this period as highly mobile groups devoted mainly to hunting.
There now are better elements to understand the complex and
diverse adaptive strategies of hunter-gatherers, some based on
intentional alteration of ecosystems.
Finally, it is necessary to stress that many of the ideas argued
throughout the text are contrasted with data that are still scarce.
Therefore it is imperative to encourage research on early people in
Colombia in order to move forward on issues such as arrival dates,
routes taken, the actual role of the late Pleistocene megafauna, and
the impact of climate change on both resource availability and
adaptive changes and adjustments of human groups, in order to
determine the population dynamics of Northwest South America,
a region which considering its geographical position must have
been a crossroads of peoples, manners, and ideas.
Acknowledgements
We thank Lucas Bueno, Gustavo Politis, Luciano Prates, and
James Steele for the invitation to participate in the special volume
Central and South American Archaeology and Paleoenvironment.
An early version of this paper was presented by Francisco Javier
Aceituno in the symposium “constructing a database of late Pleis-
tocene/early Holocene archaeological C14 date” in the framework
10 F.J. Aceituno et al. / Quaternary International xxx (2012) 1e11
of 76th SAA Annual Meeting. Fig. 5D and H courtesy of Hernan
Pimienta. Fig. 5K and L courtesy of Leonor Herrera. Fig. 5M, N and O
courtesy of Cristobal Gnecco. Nicolas Loaiza thanks Colciencias for
its support in the form of a Francisco José de Caldas Fellowship.
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